Review Round-Up: New Doc on 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Nadia Murad Opens Friday
ON HER SHOULDERS opens Friday, November 2nd at AFS Cinema. Get tickets.
Twenty-three-year-old Yazidi activist Nadia Murad’s life is a dizzying array of exhausting undertakings—from giving testimony before the U.N. to visiting refugee camps to soul-bearing media interviews and one-on-one meetings with top government officials. With deep compassion and a formal precision and elegance that matches Nadia’s calm and steely demeanor, filmmaker Alexandria Bombach follows this strong-willed young woman, who survived the 2014 genocide of the Yazidis in Northern Iraq and escaped the hands of ISIS to become a relentless beacon of hope for her people, even when at times she longs to lay aside this monumental burden and simply have an ordinary life. (Oscilloscope)
Here’s what critics are saying:
“Alexandria Bombach’s direction and editing are exceptional; she captures images that are both subtle and formidable.” – Ken Jaworowski, The New York Times
“The film is carried by Murad’s face: composed more often than seems possible, opaque to the weariness and harsher emotions that may stir behind it, an effective tool for forcing the world to confront what she believes it has done too little to stop.” – John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
“One of the most important things about Nadia Murad is she’s a compelling screen presence…The film’s heroine holds our attention, no matter the mode. She’s so limpid and self-possessed that you often understand the essence of what she’s saying before it’s been filtered through her translator.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“An intimate, empathetic documentary, made with discretion and power.” – Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times
